Plymley' did much, in their sparkling logic and playful force, to invade the prejudices which stood like phantoms on the path of concession to the Catholics, and some of which were only to be laid by a witty exorcist like this. The public will long miss the occassional sallies of the brilliant Canon -rarer and more rare of late years-yet still, from time to time, directed against a towering falshood, or a rampant fraud.

tleman, about that time member for Cirencester. I the death of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, have also How his purpose of conducting his pupil to the to mention that of one who pursued the same obUniversity of Weimar was defeated, owing to the [jects as the former, by means so totally distinct, continental troubles of the time-and Edinburgh and was as unlike the zealous Baronet as a man was resorted to as a place of education more libe- of kindred opinions and princiciples could well ral than Oxford or Cambridge, Mr. Sydney Smith be. What the one enforced by earnest statement has himself pleasantly told us: also how during and the cumulation of evidence, the other_illushis five years' residence and service at the Epis-trated by satire and pointed with epigram. copal Chapel there he made an intimate friend-There is less evidence of direct action on the life ship with Lords Brougham and Jeffrey. This of his generation in the case of Sydney Smith union led to the establishment of the Edinburgh than in that of Fowel Buxton, from the fact of Review,-which at its commencement Mr. Syd- one being a student, the other a member of parliney Smith edited. The world will long look to ament-one a man of speculation, the other of this as to the opening of an important era in Eng-business. Yet it is very difficult to say what lish literary history for then, so to say, was amount of influence a writer like the former may founded an empire of criticism-wider in its ob- have had on his age. There is no doubt it was jects, more vigorous in its provisions, more perfect very considerable-something, perhaps, between in its administrative machinery, than any of the that which he himself asserted and that which his dynasty which had flourished in the eighteenth political opponents allowed. His well known century. On the mistakes made at its outset by share in the establishment and conduct of the Edinthis new and formidable organ of opinion, it burgh Review was itself a large contribution to would be ungrateful to dwell when we would re- that opinion which is current philosophy now, cord, that the cause of tolerance without licenti-though it involved many heresies in the belief of ousness, and philanthropy without cant, was sub-those days: and his celebrated Letters of Peter stantially aided by its exertions and the attention they commanded. If the good done thereby could be apportioned out, a large share would fall to the Rev. Sydney Smith,-perhaps owing to the characteristic, which so eminently distinguished him throughout life, that even when most severe, he never ceased to be genial. Never, probably, indeed, was so large a body of what may be called sarcastic criticism put forth, in which so small a share of personality or irritability can be It is not possible for us here to offer a comdetected. The very gift which rendered him en-plete enumeration of Mr. Smith's literary producgaging as a man, made him formidable as a writer. tions; among the latest were what may be called Mr. Sydney Smith left Edinburgh for London his ecclesiastical pamphlets, in which (for once in 1803, and shortly after married the daughter of in his career a little angry) he did battle with Mr. Pybus, the banker. He then commenced Lord John Russell; and his more recent protests the career of a fashionable preacher-but he was against railway mismanagements and American of a metal too true, ever to drivel into "religious" repudiators." Lively as the sensation which lionism." He subsequently lectured, with great each and all of these excited on their appearance, it success, at the British Institution, on belles lettres; was doubled by the conversational renown of their thenceforth, with the exception of a few years author. On this we must dwell for an instant, as passed at his living of Frostonin in Yorkshire, not only of its kind eminent:-but the last, we with which he was presented by Lord Erskine, and are inclined to fancy, of a similar line of reputaduring which he published The Letters of Peter tions. There will never be any want of talkers Plymley,' his life was essentially that of a literary to amuse society; but the reign of those who Londoner of the highest class; social rather than governed it after the fashion of Johnson and Parr, scholastic. His pen was not idle, it is true-as the author of the Aids to Reflection,' and the the upholders of old-established abuses found it Canon of St. Paul's, seems to have come to an to their cost; but it became presently evident, end. To none of his predecessors did Mr. Sydthat a power also existed, in his conversation,ney Smith yield in his intolerance of pretension, little less redoubtable. Those who are curious in his power of seizing a point or bearding a prejuin comparing influences, while writing the his- dice or demolishing a fallacy. But his desire for tory of English opinion, will hardly overlook the Truth was greater than his desire for victory. fact that while Coleridge, by harranguing ore ro- He would never escape from a reason "with a tundo was involving great questions in a maze of fool-born jest." He was great enough to bear mighty words and noble ideas, the Laughing Phi- the subject of his wit, when it was most brilliant, losopher, by some happy epigrammatic turn, some being taken away from him, by an explanation epithet which reached from the heart of the however awkwardly tendered, or a fact in mitispeaker to the heart of the subject-some ap-gation, were it only authentic; and none who peal to common sense or benevolence, concise, clear, and convincing-was helping on our social progress as signally as his compeer was assisting in the generation of thought.

.

We have few more events to record, with regard to Mr. Sydney Smith, save his presentation to the living of Combe Florey, Somersetshire, in 1829, and his nomination to a canonship of St. Paul's in 1831. It is a remarkable circumstance, that we should in the same paper which records

ever enjoyed his society can have forgotten the
amiable readiness he showed to accept courteous-
ly the smaller coin which his companions had to
offer. It is a rare distinction, but one which
ought to be written on his monument, that while
he wasted no gift of those so liberally bestowed
on him, in ministering to the unworthy pleasures of
others, or in promoting his own selfish aggrandize-
ment-as a Wit he was more beloved than feared.
|—Athenæum.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES.

Great Britain.

Father Ripa's Residence at the Court of Peking; forming Number XV. of Murray's Colonial Library.

rightly, he said was to set the brain, which he supposed had been displaced. It is true, however, that after this second operation my head felt more free.

which he made me, still stripped to the waist, A third operation was now performed, during walk in the open air, supported by two persons; This is an abridgment or condensation, of Fa- and, while thus walking he unexpectedly threw ther Ripa's "History of the Chinese College," a bowl of freezing cold water over my breast. executed by the English translator of that work. As this caused me to draw my breath with great It forms a narrative worthy of its place in this vehemence, and as my chest had been injured by series. Our brief specimen shall be Chinese sur-the fall, it may be easily imagined what were my gery and hydropathy; and, when the state of med-sufferings under this infliction. The surgeon inical science in many a European country is remem-formed me that if any rib had been dislocated, bered at the contemporary period-about one hun- this sudden and hard breathing would restore it dred and forty years since-Chinese practice does to its natural position. appear not so very barbarous. What were then The next proceeding was not less painful and the barber-surgeons of Spain, and the practitioners extravagant. The operator made me sit upon the of Italy, not to speak of more backward countries? ground; then, assisted by two men, he held a To avoid the heat of summer, which is always cloth upon my mouth and nose till I was nearly excessive in Peking, the Emperor Kang-hy had suffocated. "This," said the Chinese Esculabeen accustomed to make excursions, by land and pius, "by causing a violent heaving of the chest, water, to the south of China. But as this diver-will force back any rib that may have been bent sion caused an expense which was extremely inwards." burdensome to his subjects, he had built himself The wound in the head not being deep, he a country residence at Je-hol, in Tartary, where healed it by stuffing it with burnt cotton. he now usually resided from the beginning of May then ordered that I should continue to walk much, till the end of September, with an escort of about supported by two persons; that I should not sit thirty thousand men, besides a great multitude of long, nor be allowed to sleep before ten o'clock people who resorted thither for the love of gain at night, at which time, and not before, I should or pleasure. I was commanded to follow him take a little hifan, that is, thin rice soup. This thither, together with Father Tilisch, in the continued walking caused me to faint several capacity of a mathematician; Father Rod, in that times; but this had been foreseen by the surgeon, of a surgeon; Father Parrenin, and Don Pedrini, who had warned me not to be alarmed. He asas interpreters. We all set out together on horse-sured me that these walks in the open air, while back: but, before we were out of the city, my horse slipped, and I was instantly thrown, receiving frightful wounds in my head and other parts of my body. As my companions did not dare to stop, they recommended me to the care of two heathens, and left me fainting in the street, where I remained in this state for a considerable time.

He

fasting, would prevent the blood from settling on the chest, where it might corrupt. These remedies were barbarous and excruciating; but I am bound in truth to confess that in seven days I was so completely restored as to be able to resume my journey into Tartary-Tait's Magazine.

The Diplomatic Correspondence of the Right Hon. Richard Hill, Envoy extraordinary to the Court of Savoy, &c. Edited by the Rev. W. Blackley, B. A., Domestic Chaplain to Viscount Hill. 2 vols. 8vo. J. Murray.

When I recovered my senses, I found myself in a house; but every thing appeared dark and indistinct, and I felt as if I had fallen from my horse two months before. The Emperor sent me a Tartar surgeon, for he and his court were fully persuaded that for falls Tartar surgeons were better than Europeans. And, to confess the truth, although the mode of treatment was of a barbar-taneously with the discovery of the Marlborough It is a singular coincidence, that almost simulous description, and some of the remedies appeared useless, I was cured in a very short time. This surgeon made me sit up in my bed, placing near me a large basin filled with water, in which he put a thick piece of ice, to reduce it to a freezing point. Then stripping me to the waist, he made me stretch my neck over the basin, and, with a cup, he continued for a good while to pour the water on my neck. The pain caused by this operation upon those nerves which take their rise from the pia-mater was so great and insufferable, that it seemed to me unequalled. The surgeon said that this would stanch the blood and restore me to my senses, which was actually the case; for in a short time my sight became clear, and my mind resumed its powers.

He next bound my head with a band drawn tight by two men, who held the ends, while he struck the intermediate parts vigorously with a piece of wood, which shook my head violently, and gave me dreadful pain. This, if I remember

Mss., a similar chance should have brought the
diplomatic correspondence of his contemporary,
Mr. Hill, to light. The Letters, &c., in these
volumes, illustrate and receive illustration from
the work to which we just called attention. They
are dated from July 1703 to May 1706, and run
parallel on the Italian side of the grand European
fray with those of Marlborough in the Low
Countries and Germany. The five volumes, in
point of fact, might have been published as one
work; and both are eminently acceptable for
the elucidation of history, when the ambition
of France was controlled, and the continent freed
from a despotism, such as occurred in our own
times, and with similar results.
Louis XIV. and the age of Napoleon Buonaparte
are fertile in mighty and useful comparisons.
We have no room for any of Mr. Hill's Letters.
Those descriptive of the king, court, and policy
of Savoy, are something in the Malmsbury man-
ner; and the work is adorned with a number of

The age of

3.

interesting fac-simile autographs.

A thousand SELECT LIST OF RECENT PUBLICATIONS.

particulars of the Ten Years of Glory which
brightened Anna's Reign will be found in these
sterling publications, of a kind of which we should
much like to see many more, to redeem our de-
teriorated literature.

GREAT BRITAIN.

Bible Illustrations, by the Rev. B. H.
Draper, 4th edit., revised by John Kitto,

Dr. Young's Lectures on Natural Philosophy, ed- editor of the Pictorial Bible.
ited by Professor Kelland, Part I.

Dr. Young's lectures, in two quarto volumes,
have long been reckoned among scarce books.
We have before us the commencement of an oc-

The

Blunt's (Rev. H.) Posthumous Sermons, Second Series.

Christ our All in All, by the Rev. R. Montgomery.

Domestic Management of the Sick Room, 2nd edit., by A. T. Thomson, M. D. Egypt and Mehemit Ali, by Prince Puckler Muskau, Vols. II. and III.

Johnson.

tavo republication, with plates taken from the
original copper. It is needless to say a word in
praise of what every one, conversant with the
subject, knows to be a classical work, and a great
authority: it will be more to the purpose to give
a short description of the reprint before us.
text of Young is given entire; and under the
Life in the New World, by Scaterfield.
name of "additional authorities," are copious Philosophy of Art, an Oration on the Re-
references to other writings on the different sub-lation between the Plastic Arts and Nature,
jects. Many of these references are taken from T. W. J. Von Schelling, translated by A.
Young's second volume; which, though forming
part of the work, is chiefly occupied with biblio-
graphical lists. The plates are, as just observed,
the clean and well finished copper-plates of the
original work; which have fallen into the hands
of the publisher, and either were in, or have been
restored to, excellent condition. The admirers
of Young will be glad to hear of an accessible
edition of his lectures, in which the text has been
carefully preserved and all who seek informa-
tion, should know that Young is not a popular
writer, but by far the most popular of those whose
accuracy can be relied on in a vast range of sub-
jects, and who have actually written through
that range. Athenæum.

:

Revelations of Russia in 1845, by an English Resident, 2nd edit.

GERMANY.

Geschichte von Port Royal. Der Kamp des reformirten u. d. jesuitischen Katholicismus unter Louis XIII. u. XIV, Vol. II. Von Dr. H. Reuchlin. Hamburg. Handbuch der Physiologie des Menschen.

Cobl.

The Pencil of Nature. By Henry Fox Talbot, F. 4 te. Aufl. Von Dr. Joh. Müller.
R. S. Parts I and II. Longman & Co.
The Pencil of Nature' is the first attempt at
photographic publication. Daguerreotype plates
have been etched, but as yet no etching process
has been entirely successful with them. Skilful
artists, indeed, have engraved them, and from
these engraved plates prints have been taken and
sold as Daguerreotypes; but until Mr. Fox Tal-
bot made this experiment, no productions, which
have been entirely the result of solar influence,
have passed through the publishers to the public.
The experiment of photographically illustrated
books is now before the world; and all who see
Mr. Talbot's publication will be convinced that
the promise of the art is great, and its utility and
excellence, in many respects, of a high order.
Whilst the French have attended only to the
Daguerreotype process, and stuck to the silver
plates, the English, following in the footsteps of
Mr. Talbot, have diligently sought after processes
of equal sensibility on paper; and their zeal in
the inquiry has been well rewarded: we now
possess several preparations capable of receiving
images with equal rapidity with the Daguerreo-
type; and for the cumbrous metal, we substitute
the more convenient material, paper.

Geschichte der christl. Philosophie. Von
H. Ritter. Hamburg.

Geschichte der Philosophie von allgemeinen wissenschaftlichen und geschichtlichen Standpunkt. Von Dr. H. C. W. Sigwart. Vol. III. Stuttg.

Die Erdkunde von Asien. Von Carl. Ritter. Berlin.

This process possesses the great advantages of giving us after we have procured and well fixed a good original-any number of pictures of equal excellence and of unvarying fidelity, which is impossible with the Daguerreotype.

FRANCE.

Vitraux Peints de St.-Etienne de Bourges. Recherches par A. Martin et C. Cahier. Paris.

La Science Nouvelle; par Vico, Traduite par l'Auteur de l'Essai sur la formation du Dogme Catholique, Avec une Introduction sur Vico et ses Euvres. Paris.

Vie de Legh Richmond, pasteur de Turvey et chapelain de feu S. A. R. le duc de Kent, par T. S. Grimshawe. Traduit d l'Anglais.

Paris.

Discours de Finney sur les réveils religieux. Traduit de l'Anglais. Paris.

J

1